January 07, 2013

Scription 2012 - How Was It?

Scription has been very slow in the past year of 2012. I thought situation at work would become smoother but it didn't. Simply opening too many stores too fast, losing important connection between sourcing and customer wants/needs. In addition to under staff situation in my departments, I had a lot of tedious problems to tackle for developing new stores in Shanghai. That left me essentially no time in cultivating people and projects at work, let alone my own Chronodex adventure. 2012 was a very tiring year.

I did managed to stop by a few nice places during my business trips, which is like Shanghai every month, such as Le Jardin Secret (秘密花園) restuarant, A Room which is a nice cafe flooded with vintage stuffs and GZ cafe which the owner is always there to chat with.

(Shanghai airport lounge)

(Shanghai airport: roof window looks like leaves from certain angles)

I did managed to steal time, like I said before, to do something I like in small chunks of time too, but that's not too fulfilling and I always feel like missing a lot of things. Like bringing personal projects to business trip hoping I could work on them in hotel but eventually too tired to do so, like I needed to organize ideas floating around but there was never a quiet moment I could use productively. Despite what you think apparently, I myself feel like losing myself bits and pieces here and there. 2013 new year resolution? Be smarter.

Smarter! Like forget about Apple's Map, use Baidu in China once and for all. For the rest of the world, Google Map rocks. Yup, Apple led somebody in Australia to a dessert, it led me to a wrong building too. Not smart to roll out an app like that. Not smart when you don't know you are not ready for it (I'm reminding myself).

(Sensu brush is the best stylus I've ever found! Writing with it on iPad is effortless, not to mention the amazing low friction digital painting in apps like Paper)

(Words notebook: made in USA, carefully chosen paper and ink, size the same as Moleskine Cahier, unique system of notation for tasks and bullets. Fountain pen will bleed through pages, finer rollerballs, pencils and ballpoints are perfect. I would say it is the tasks/bullets version of Field Notes)

(Varacil mechanical pencil PUZZLE, HK$108 kind of challenging to finish, but it is our 2012 Xmas TOP seller! 砌死人嘅鉛蕊筆)

As for product reviews in 2012, I believe I did nothing at all. Did managed to post some pictures with short comments on Instagram/Twitter feed, but no analysis and comparison, zero. Well, Scription is not about product reviews afterall, I am sure you trust what I share here or on Instagram/Twitter has some points of interest. Maybe I filtered too much, should have revealed a little more.

(Kaweco props for retail display: sick and tired of data analysis and fighting against biased opinions on that day, so I played with tihngs on my table for a few minutes)

(Frame and lenses: I was just posting something I stare at for a long time, bet they are pleasing in some ways, to you too)

(Headphones and cameras cleaning day of the year)

Yes I posted porns on my feeds too, judging from the responds I get, I figured people really don't mind. I hope in between these porns, you can see tibits of my life and practise perhaps something good will come out of the sharing.

Oh meeting people in 2012 was fun, great fun. I took the liberty to further disrupt my work boundaries and went to Tainan University of Technology sharing my retail experience, hope I had inspired some students there. They are very polite and teachers are super friendly, I appreciate the opportunity. I also went to a forum to speak to dozens of secondary school students in Hong Kong, sharing thoughts about creating a sustainable campaign for their Chinese New Year projects. I love sharing, which is part of my very own learning, I just hope I can have more time to do that in our industry as well.

Comments

Scription 2012 - How Was It?

Scription has been very slow in the past year of 2012. I thought situation at work would become smoother but it didn't. Simply opening too many stores too fast, losing important connection between sourcing and customer wants/needs. In addition to under staff situation in my departments, I had a lot of tedious problems to tackle for developing new stores in Shanghai. That left me essentially no time in cultivating people and projects at work, let alone my own Chronodex adventure. 2012 was a very tiring year.

I did managed to stop by a few nice places during my business trips, which is like Shanghai every month, such as Le Jardin Secret (秘密花園) restuarant, A Room which is a nice cafe flooded with vintage stuffs and GZ cafe which the owner is always there to chat with.

(Shanghai airport lounge)

(Shanghai airport: roof window looks like leaves from certain angles)

I did managed to steal time, like I said before, to do something I like in small chunks of time too, but that's not too fulfilling and I always feel like missing a lot of things. Like bringing personal projects to business trip hoping I could work on them in hotel but eventually too tired to do so, like I needed to organize ideas floating around but there was never a quiet moment I could use productively. Despite what you think apparently, I myself feel like losing myself bits and pieces here and there. 2013 new year resolution? Be smarter.

Smarter! Like forget about Apple's Map, use Baidu in China once and for all. For the rest of the world, Google Map rocks. Yup, Apple led somebody in Australia to a dessert, it led me to a wrong building too. Not smart to roll out an app like that. Not smart when you don't know you are not ready for it (I'm reminding myself).

(Sensu brush is the best stylus I've ever found! Writing with it on iPad is effortless, not to mention the amazing low friction digital painting in apps like Paper)

(Words notebook: made in USA, carefully chosen paper and ink, size the same as Moleskine Cahier, unique system of notation for tasks and bullets. Fountain pen will bleed through pages, finer rollerballs, pencils and ballpoints are perfect. I would say it is the tasks/bullets version of Field Notes)

(Varacil mechanical pencil PUZZLE, HK$108 kind of challenging to finish, but it is our 2012 Xmas TOP seller! 砌死人嘅鉛蕊筆)

As for product reviews in 2012, I believe I did nothing at all. Did managed to post some pictures with short comments on Instagram/Twitter feed, but no analysis and comparison, zero. Well, Scription is not about product reviews afterall, I am sure you trust what I share here or on Instagram/Twitter has some points of interest. Maybe I filtered too much, should have revealed a little more.

(Kaweco props for retail display: sick and tired of data analysis and fighting against biased opinions on that day, so I played with tihngs on my table for a few minutes)

(Frame and lenses: I was just posting something I stare at for a long time, bet they are pleasing in some ways, to you too)

(Headphones and cameras cleaning day of the year)

Yes I posted porns on my feeds too, judging from the responds I get, I figured people really don't mind. I hope in between these porns, you can see tibits of my life and practise perhaps something good will come out of the sharing.

Oh meeting people in 2012 was fun, great fun. I took the liberty to further disrupt my work boundaries and went to Tainan University of Technology sharing my retail experience, hope I had inspired some students there. They are very polite and teachers are super friendly, I appreciate the opportunity. I also went to a forum to speak to dozens of secondary school students in Hong Kong, sharing thoughts about creating a sustainable campaign for their Chinese New Year projects. I love sharing, which is part of my very own learning, I just hope I can have more time to do that in our industry as well.

Walter Isaacson: Steve JobsLove hearing the stories all over again, some of them especially what happened in the past few years are new to me. Most importantly it is a closer portrait of Steve than all other books about him. Isaacson recorded audios during his interview with Steve, check out 60 minutes special and you will hear Steve's own voice. RIP Steve. (****)